Beijing Lamb Skewers (Yangrou Chuan)

Some of my only memories from our first trip to Beijing (I was five years old at the time) were of standing in front of a roadside grill joint, waiting for a few of these amazing yangrou chuan or grilled lamb skewers. Beijing was a different place back then—a lot more of the old and less of the new. I have no memory of shiny malls or enormous skyscrapers, but I do remember the smoke and the smell coming from that makeshift street barbecue. Yangrou chuan, or lamb skewers, are a quintessential Beijing favorite—a favorite among many lamb-loving Northern Chinese, in fact. Spicy, crispy, fatty lamb on a stick. That’s basically the gist of it. Many examples of which can be found in our Xi’an Street Food post here. I decided to make my own at home. After all, it is grilling season.

Beijing Lamb Skewers: Recipe Instructions

We like to use the lamb shoulder chops because they’re a pretty marbled piece of meat, and they don’t cost a fortune. Simply remove the meat from the bone and cut into small chunks. Don’t trim any of the fat from the lamb. This is what’s going to give you the flavor you’re looking for. Put the lamb in a mixing bowl. In a mortar and pestle (or spice grinder), add the cumin seeds, dried chili flakes, and salt. Pound it all together, cracking the chili flakes and cumin seeds into smaller pieces (you want it to be coarse, not a fine powder). Add about half of the spices (the other half will be used for sprinkling after the lamb finishes cooking) to the lamb along with the oil and mix everything together. Put the lamb onto the bamboo skewers. Heat your grill until searing hot. Place the lamb skewers on the hot grill… And grill until they get a nice char on the outside. What they do in Beijing is continually sprinkle more spices on the skewers. Transfer to a plate and serve your lamb skewers yangrou chuan and watch them disappear in a flash!   Check out our post on Beijinger Beach Weekend and you can see how lamb skewers yangrou chuan and other goodies are really done on the grill in Beijing!